The QHY600 Photographic Cooled Monochrome CMOS Camera is a full-frame sensor camera taking astrophotography to the next level. It has extremely low dark noise and a square pixel array with 60M effective pixels. This Monochrome version has a 3.76-micron pixel size, a sensor size of 36 mm x 24 mm, and 16-bit ADC. Experience sharp detail in a massive image fit for astrophotographers with this innovative camera from QHY.
Photographic Features
- USB 3.0 interface
- Full frame 16-bit image support at 2.5 FPS
- Full frame 8-bit image support at 4 FPS
- ROI support at higher frame rates
- More compact body than the Pro version
Native 16-bit ADC
Coming in hot at a native 16-bit A/D on-chip, this camera is the real deal. The output has 65536 levels and can get a very high sample resolution with the system gain being less than 1e/ADU. To sweeten the deal, there is no sample error noise and super low noise overall.
Massive Full Well Capacity
A massive benefit when opting for the back-illuminated CMOS structure is that you get a much-improved full well capacity. The capacity of this camera, unbinned at 3.76-micron pixels, is a whopping 49ke-. Then, when binning at 2×2 with 7.5-micron pixels you’ll be at 196ke-. And if you decide to go for 3×3 binning, you’ll be at 11-micron pixels to bring the full well capacity to 441ke-. This is undoubtedly an impressive piece of equipment.
- Low Read Noise
At high gain and 2 FPS high readout speed, the QHY600M-PH has only 1 electron of read noise. Let that sink in for a moment. This means the camera can achieve SNR>3 at only 3 to 4 photons in favorable conditions.
The differences between the Photographic and Professional versions include:- Professional version has a high-speed fiber interface and USB3.0 interface. Photographic version has only a USB3.0 interface.
- Professional version may has more on-camera DDR3 memory than the Photographic version.
- Professional version has rich, external, expandable I/O signals as well as a rich resource that allow the user to customize the FPGA inside the camera.
- Professional version is more expensive than Photographic version.
- Professional version has a longer body to accommodate the length of the optical fiber interface.
- Also: The Early Bird version of the camera has the hardware design of the Professional model, but the functions of the Photographic version. For example, the Early Bird version will have sockets for both Ethernet and USB3.0 but only the USB socket is active. Users who buy the Early Bird version can upgrade it to the full Professional version QHY600M/C-Pro by paying the difference in price. （Those that purchase the Photographic version have no chance to upgrade into the Professional version.） The Early Bird version also includes a free set of the QHYCCD 0.5 mm-27.5 mm spacers for precise and solid back-focus adjustment in a variety of optical train configurations. Early Bird purchasers can also order a QHYCFW3L (7-position, 2-inch, 50 mm) or QHYCFW3XL (9- position, 2-inch, 50 mm) motor-driven filter wheel with the QHY600 camera at 10% off the list price of the filter wheel.
